‘Gay Rights’ Icon Frank Kameny Tells AFTAH: Bestiality OK ‘as Long as the Animal Doesn’t Mind’

AFTAH Exclusive: Homosexual hero also extols ‘harder-core pornography,’ says phrase “sexual perversion’ is meaningless

Homosexual activist icon Frank Kameny (center) donated his 1965 protest signs to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History last year. Smithsonian Photo: Harold Dorwin.

By Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH Exclusive

Frank Kameny — the “gay” pioneer revered by homosexual activists for his role in pressuring the American Psychiatric Association to effectively reclassify homosexuals as normal — now says that sex with animals is OK “as long as the animal doesn’t mind.”

Kameny responded to AFTAH’s article reporting on the sale of bestiality videos (and other hard-core pornography) at the recent “International Mr. Leather” convention — by defending sex with “consenting animals” and encouraging the use of “more and better and harder-core pornography” as manifestations of “Americanism in action.”

In his e-letter to Americans For Truth, Kameny, 83, stated:

“Bestiality is not my thing … But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn’t mind (and the animal rarely does), I don’t mind, and I don’t see why anyone else should.”

We have many questions for Kameny, the first being: how exactly does an animal signal his or her “consent” to have sex with a human?

Last year, Kameny — a leader in the pressure campaign to declassify homosexuality as a psychiatric mental disorder — was honored by the Smithsonian Institution. His 1965 protest signs (and button with the “Gay Is Good” slogan he coined) will be displayed at the National Museum of American History, and his papers will be archived at the Library of Congress.

AFTAH criticized the notion that Kameny should be honored as an American civil rights hero. This writer has had several interactions with Kameny over the years, and I have interviewed him at length. He is civil but not afraid to confront “the enemy,” usually in stinging letters to pro-family leaders after watching them debate a “gay”-related issue in the media. Click HERE to read Wikipedia’s sympathetic bio of Kameny.

The following is Kameny’s letter May 31, 2008, to Americans For Truth (emphasis added):

1. The term “sexual perversion” is devoid of objective meaning. The famous psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Szasz aptly and correctly defined “sexual perversion” as: “Any sexual practice disapproved of by the speaker.”

Absolutely indisputably a central part of the very definition of Americanism is the guarantee, found in the Declaration of Independence, as not merely a Right, but as an Inalienable Right, of the “Pursuit of Happiness.”

If something which someone arbitrarily defines as a “sexual perversion” provides happiness for consenting adult participants, then its enjoyment is enshrined in basic Americanism.

So: Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better sexual perversions, by whatever definition, by more and more consenting adults.
We will all be the better off thereby.

And that will be Americanism in action.

2. Bestiality is not “my thing.” I have never participated in it and have no expectation that I ever will. But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people.

So, as long as the animal doesn’t mind (and the animal rarely does) I don’t mind, and I don’t see why anyone else should.

If bestiality with consenting animals provides happiness to some people, let them pursue their happiness.

That is Americanism in action.

3. The First Amendment prohibits ANY law abridging freedom of speech and press. Therefore pornography is fully lawful and may not be limited or suppressed. Thus saith our Constitution.

Anyone who does not choose to view some particular pornography has an absolute right not to view it. But there is NO valid right for such people even to attempt to limit or prevent its acquisition and viewing by those who do choose to view it. Such attempts represent moral fascism, the American Taliban, and Christianofascism in action. They must be resisted to the uttermost. That is the view of the National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc., of which I am the founder and President.

Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better and harder-core pornography by those to whom such viewing provides happiness.

The pursuit of such happiness is Americanism in action.

Give some thought to what Americanism and our American freedoms really mean. It is clear that you haven’t a clue.

Franklin E. Kameny

In the National Museum of American History release announcing the acquisition of Kameny’s protest signs, Kameny states:

“Nearly fifty years ago, the United States Government banned me from employment in public service because I am a homosexual,” Kameny said. “This archive is not simply my story; it also shows how gay and lesbian Americans have joined the American mainstream story of expanded civil liberties in the 20th century. Today, by accepting these papers, the nation preserves not only our history but marks how far gay and lesbian Americans have traveled on the road to civil equality.”

Kameny led a series of escalating homosexual protests against the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, culminating in the APA dropping the classification in 1973. In his eulogy for fellow homosexual activist Barbara Gittings, he writes (emphasis added):

A difference of opinion developed in the early 1960s, as how best to approach psychiatry and the sickness theory and its advocates, with some taking a less assertive approach more deferential to the so-called authorities and experts, and others taking a more aggressive, confrontational approach, as did I. Barbara, who agreed fully with me, utilized the Daughters’ Ladder magazine, of which she was Editor, to publish a series of articles, some of which I wrote at her invitation, to set out the situation. That commenced a decade-long effort to bring psychiatry to bay. She was present in the convocation hall at the 1971 American Psychiatric Association in Washington when we invaded them and seized the microphone. She really participated in the 1972 APA convention in Dallas when she arranged for an exhibit booth entitled “Gay, Proud, and Healthy” at which was distributed a leaflet of the same title which I had written. And she arranged for the presence of Dr. John Fryer, the famous masked psychiatrist. She was present with us, by invitation, at APA headquarters in Washington, on December 15, 1973, when the APA announced their mass cure of all of us.